He said, their alleged involvement in encouraging violence to threaten the public in Syria would be bared during trial in court, and the act was required
to enable action against those involved.

“The replacement to the Internal Security Act (ISA) is a transformation in the nation’s law which prevents the public from breaking the law, without
knowing the actual situation,” he told reporters after a ceremony to launch the KDN Skuad Muda logo here today.

Hishamuddin, who is also Sembrong member of parliament, was commenting on the detention of three individuals under Sosma recently. The trio were the first to be held under Sosma.

Although the detention was under Sosma, one of them, Yazid Sufaat, 49, was charged in the Ampang magistrate’s court yesterday, with inciting or promoting the commission of terrorist acts under Section 130G(a) of the Penal Code.

His wife’s religious teacher, Halimah Hussein, 52, was charged with aiding and abetting him to promote the commission of terrorist acts under Section
130G(a) and Section 109 of the Penal Code, at a house in Ampang between August and October last year.

The other, Mohd Hilmi Hasim, has been remanded and did not appear in court.

Yazid and Halimah became the first individuals to be charged under the Penal Code for alleged involvement in activities fostering violence after the ISA was abolished on July 31, last year and replaced by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012. Bernama

An al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a seniorU.S. intelligence official said Monday.

The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.

He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda’s leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.

“We don’t know if this is biological or chemical,” the official said.

***

Al Qaeda is believed by U.S. and Western experts to have been pursuing biological weapons since at least the late 1990s. A 2005 report on unconventional weapons drafted by a commission led by former Sen. Charles Robb, Virginia Democrat, and federal appeals court Judge Laurence Silberman concluded that al Qaeda’s biological weapons program “was extensive, well organized and operated two years before the Sept. 11” terror attacks in the U.S.

DXersaid

Compare the motive of Yazid Sufaat to the wide-ranging speculation about Dr. Ivins’ motive among those who suspect him of responsibility for the mailings.

A reviewer addresses them in the FASEB journal recently in writing about Professor Guillemin’s book on the anthrax mailings:

“The motives behind the crimes?
There was no trial after Ivin’s death and although a number of details point to his guilt, the book leaves the question open. It is also essential to note here that Guillemin’s additional comments about possible motivations are scarce and less than compelling. Did the perpetrator act to raise the public’s awareness of forthcoming bioterrorist threats and to obtain a boost in funding of biodefense research? (These funds have increased beyond expectations on both sides of the Atlantic, but predominantly in the U.S.) Guillemin sums it up: The FBI began theorizing that 9/11 had moved Bruce Ivins, in righteous wrath, to simulate such an attack, perhaps to patriotically warn the nation or simply because the “bad Bruce pushed the good Bruce aside,” as stated in one of his own e-mails to a coworker.

.. ***
Doubt continued to mount over the FBI’s conclusions that Ivins had mailed the letters and/or that he could have acted alone. The news media and members of Congress [i.e., Senator Leahy and Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ)] wanted further inquiry. To avoid further criticisms and a congressional investigation, the FBI asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for an independent evaluation in April 2009. The Academy complied in less than 1 year, and a full report from the NAS committee came on February 15, 2011 (3). The committee did not validate the FBI’s conclusion that the anthrax in the letters could only have come from Ivin’s flask. The report states that, “The results of genetic analyses of the repository samples were consistent with the findings that the spores in the letters were derived from RMR-1029 but the analysis did not definitely demonstrate such a relationship.” In other words, the morphotypes could have another source. As written by Jeanne Guillemin, “they might have been present in other samples not included in the FBIR.” It follows, therefore, that the FBI’s final assessment was partly reduced to indirect speculation based on Ivins’s behavior. On February 19, 2010, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Service declared that the case was closed. Thus, for the protagonists, for Ivin’s friends, and commentators, the questions of, who did it, was he alone, and for what reasons remain a matter of debates and controversies. Dead men tell no testimonies. ”

Comment: The idea of spending millions more on Dr. Keim’s genetic analysis is ridiculous. All it did was winnow the number from 700-1000 with access to 200-300. So validating the genetics was not the key task at hand. That is like saying there were 300 people in the apartment where DC attorney Robert Wone slept the night he was murdered in his sleep. AUSA Lieber did not get a conviction in 2008 on the obstruction of justice charge in the Robert Wone case when there were only 3 in the apartment! How do you think she was going to do when there were 300 given the lack of evidence?

In comparison, while there is only unsubstantiated speculation about Dr. Ivins’ motive, Sufaat explains his motive.

People may infer an anthrax attack is imminent,” Thomas Moore, chairman of a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee, said in an interview yesterday after a meeting on the subject. “It may have an adverse impact on doxycycline,” the antibiotic that was hoarded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, he said. …

Sore Throats, Snowstorm
The government has tested these waters before with a study in 2007 in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave 4,182 households in the St. Louis area anthrax medkits. At the end of the study, 4,076 households were available for follow-up, 130 of those did not return their medkits.

Most who didn’t return them lost the products or threw them away while four households used them and five refused to return them, according to the report from the bioterrorism agency. One elderly woman took the doxycycline during an emergency declared for a snow storm, two used the tablets to treat sore throats and one declined to specify the use, Linda Neff, a senior epidemiologist in the CDC’s office of public health preparedness and response, said during the FDA meeting.

Comment: Hey, I’ve got an alternative idea. Why don’t you arrest and charge Yazid Sufaat with a conspiracy to develop and use anthrax against the United States for terroristic purposes? He’s never been charged with the crime because of the botching of Amerithrax.

DXersaid

Zacarias Moussaou was in Karachi with anthrax lab tech Yazid Sufaat on February 3, 2001 when they bought air tickets through a local travel agency for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They left on a flight for KL on February 8, 2001. Moussaoui began at the Norman, Oklahoma flight school on February 26, 2001. KSM says that Moussaoui’s inquiries about cropdusters may have related to Hambali and Sufaat’s work with anthrax.

DXersaid

Among the longest-serving ISA detainees in history, Yazid, currently under travel, asset and arms deals sanctions imposed by the United Nations, believes his incarceration has to do with his “expertise”.

Trained as a biochemist on a government scholarship in the United States, this top student of the Royal Military College who retired as a captain with the army was part of a biological warfare programme under the Defence Ministry.

Osama Laden, Yazid was hesitant to reveal details about the government’s “secret” programme which was later scrapped, describing it “a long story”.

“When they (the police) first took me in, I didn’t tell them (about the government programme). I didn’t want them to know, didn’t want the liability to fall on the government, to pass the buck to someone else.

“Finally, they managed to get a report from their ‘friend’ and they wanted me to clear things up. I didn’t want to clarify (anything), so they took my wife in,” said the father of four.

His wife, Sejahratul Dursina @ Chomel Mohamed, was held under ISA for two months and after this was placed under a movement restriction order for six years.

“If you want to be released from ISA, just follow what they say and admit to all the charges… I refused to do so and they kept me for seven years… because I don’t want to sing (Negara-ku).

“I don’t want to sing. Why should I (when) the country had betrayed me?” Yazid asked.

***

The other two individuals linked to 9/11 who stayed in the Sungai Long condominium were Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi – two of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon.

The duo, according to the United Nations, had stayed at Yazid’s condominium in January 2000 to attend what the UN termed an “al-Qaeda conference” in Kuala Lumpur.

“I was not there. At that time I was in Pakistan and Afghanistan, building a hospital there,” Yazid said.

Next to the hospital, he said, was a laboratory where he is accused of developing biological weapons – an accusation not levelled at him during his detention under the ISA, but earning him the moniker “Anthrax CEO”.

Favourite bugs

CBS News reported that US intelligence doubts that Yazid developed the anthrax strain, while a leaked Guantanamo Bay document posted on Wikileaks noted that a Yemeni detainee said Yazid had “poor lab techniques”.

But Yazid said that he was in fact “successful” in developing some “bugs”, but the laboratory was destroyed when the Northern Alliance forces bombed Kandahar.

“I can still find (anthrax) if I want to, but what for? It has no commercial value. Anthrax is only good for sabotaging, it cannot kill.

“It’s not my favourite bug, anyway. I’d rather use bacteria or virus yang betul-betul(really) hit you and give you one or two hours before you die.

DXersaid

Date on which the narrative summary became available on the Committee’s website: 21 May 2009

Yazid Sufaat was listed on 9 September 2003 pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 of resolution 1390 (2002) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”; “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to”; and “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” Jemaah Islamiyah (QE.J.92.02) and Al-Qaida (QE.A.4.01).

Additional information:

Yazid Sufaat became a member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) (QE.J.92.02) at its creation. Sufaat graduated from California State University, Sacramento, the United States of America, in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in biological science and chemistry. He worked on Al-Qaida’s (QE.A.4.01) biological weapons program after being introduced to Aiman al-Zawahiri (QI.A.6.01) by Hambali, listed as Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin (QI.I.87.03), in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

In January 2000, a meeting of senior Al-Qaida leaders (known as the “2000 Al-Qaida summit”) took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to discuss future terrorist plots. Two of the 11 September 2001 hijackers, as well as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (not listed) and Ramzi Binalshibh (QI.B.81.02), participated. At Hambali’s request, Sufaat provided lodging in his apartment for the Al-Qaida operatives.

Through his company Green Laboratory Medicine (pathology laboratory) (not listed) Sufaat acquired four tons of ammonium nitrate in late 2000 for JI bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozhi (QI.A.110.03) in preparation for a series of bombings in Singapore.

In October 2000, Sufaat met Zacarias Moussaoui (not listed), who was sentenced in the United States of America on 4 May 2006 to life in prison without the possibility of release for his involvement in the preparation of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. Sufaat gave him $35,000 in addition to a $2,500 monthly stipend to be used in the final preparations for these attacks. Sufaat also provided the necessary employment documents for Moussaoui to obtain a United States visa by hiring him as a marketing consultant for Sufaat’s wife’s legitimate business.

Sufaat was involved in the December 2000 church bombings in Indonesia, perpetrated by JI.

In 2001, Sufaat spent several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for Al-Qaida in a laboratory he helped set up near Kandahar airport in Afghanistan.

Sufaat was arrested and placed in detention under the Internal Security Act of Malaysia between 9 December 2001 and 24 November 2008.

DXersaid

The Director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation was in Malaysia in March 2002. The FBI chief stopped in Kuala Lumpur on an Asia-Pacific tour to strengthen law-enforcement cooperation in a region Washington describes as one of the next fronts in the war on terrorism. The director of the Federal Bureau of investigation met Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and senior police officers as part of a trip aimed at bolstering the fight against international terrorism.

But by this time the FBI was already off and running with its fixation on the Hatfill Theory.

According to President Bush, the USG did not learn of Yazid’s role in Al Qaeda’s anthrax program until KSM was captured in March 2003.

Is it any surprise that Amerithrax was botched? The FBI claimed the reason that materials relating to the testing of Sufaat’s lab and the postiive findings for Ames were classified and withheld from the NAS were to protect delicate relations with another country. The FBI didn’t want to embarrass the other country.

Oh, really? Is it the FBI conduct of Amerithrax that is the embarrassment? … the reason for the withholding of information.

DXersaid

“After the bombing, Boston Globe once published a picture of a large brown bottle that indicated it had been harvested on about June 7, 2001. Would that have been Sterne? Or would that have been in sutbilis? Were you involved with Abu Khabab’s research in August/September 2001 involving rabbits or was that at a different location?
36 minutes ago

Egyptian Islamic Jihad shura members Mabruk and Najjar – along with lawyer Montasser Al-Zayat – in Spring 1999 announced that Dr. Ayman Zawahiri would use anthrax against US targets to retaliate rendering of senior EIJ leaders, to include the Blind Sheikh. Do you think that was the motive of the mailing of anthrax in the US in Fall 2001?

The FBI accessed the email used by Zacarias Moussaoui on September 18, 2001. It was called greenlab@usa.com. That is the name of your laboratory. Did you create the email or did Moussaoui? What emails did the FBI find?

DXersaid

[DXer] Did you go to Pakistan after your release as reported by local Pakistan newspapers? If so, when did you get back?
20 minutes ago ·

Yazid Sufaat I can do magic Ross~
15 minutes ago

[DXer] In southern Lombok, the Nyale worm festival was very special. Lots of good laughs. Even apart from religious faith, smiles and laughs are a good thing, I think.
3 minutes ago

[DXer] The authors JB Petro and David Relman in Perils of Scientific Openness in the journal, SCIENCE, listed an article taken after the bombing that discussed growing anthrax in silica. DId you grow your anthrax in silica? I’m not a scientist and so any question I ask about science may very well be poorly asked.

DXersaid

[DXer] Hi Chomel. Can Yazid state something quotable about something? For example, who does he think is responsible for sending anthrax spores to the US? I don’t think Al Qaeda is responsible as such. I think the Vanguards of Conquest is responsible — which is understood as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad by some and merely a segment of EIJ by others. In other words, it was an operation by Dr. Ayman (Zawahiri) involving a compartmentalized cell operation. AQ’s bio program involved more compartmentalization than its chem program. Yazid would not have been involved as such, I don’t think, in the anthrax letters. Barq and al-Sudani did not impress interrogators as very talented. Wikileaks has been invaluable at shedding light. Prosecutors withhold documents — sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes for the wrong reasons. I think in Amerithrax they have withheld documents mostly for the wrong reasons — to avoid getting in trouble for driving an innocent man to suicide. Bottom-line: Dr. Ayman Zawahiri does not strike me as someone who doesn’t follow through on his plans. Montasser Al-Zayat and Dr.Fadl may not think Dr. Ayman is much of a religious scholar, and many may fault with his strategic decisions, I don’t think anyone would question that he is not a quitter who doesn’t follow through.

DXersaid

The first thing to do in advancing analysis is to confirm that Yazid’s Kandahar lab had virulent Ames. He and Barq and al-Sudani were all vaccinated. The hijacker who came from Kandahar (arriving in Florida in early June 2001) got a gash in his leg there in Kandahar and then later his remains tested positive for Ames. So we can ask Yazid whether he can confirm that the strain anthrax that he was using was Ames. In a chat message, he confirmed to me that he likes making people smile and that would make me smile. He would not be speaking out of school in that the tests already point to the strain being Ames in the molecular analysis.

The second and related thing we might do is ask him if he knows what BL-3 lab Abdur Rauf visited.. the one where he wrote Dr. Ayman that the “targets had been achieved.” The FBI knows and so it is not like Yazid would be speaking out of school. He might not know given the strict compartmentalization that Dr. Zawahiri is said to have maintained in the anthrax project.

Yazid was just one component of a broader effort that included, for example, Mohammed Saaed’s procurement efforts in Karachi buying equipment and Abdur Rauf’s effort in 1999 to obtain virulent anthrax and vaccine.

DXersaid

“Yazid, the interrogation reports provided by Wikileaks provide many details of the project at Omar Hospital and Kandahar for which you, Barq and al-Sudani were vaccinated. And the US Government Accountability Office will be coming out with a report soon about the science relating to the tests that showed the Ames strain of anthrax being used. Can you confirm that it was the Ames strain of anthrax?”

As a big fan of interesting news – but one who tires quickly of the usual political spin devoid of substantive content — I am hoping we learn something new and interesting. MSNBC’s Rachel’s coverage of Romney’s flip-flops, for example, tonight was a tired rehash.

DXersaid

The Daily News editorialized on the subject upon Yazid Sufaat’s releas and took a dim view as to the claim he had been “rehabilitated.”:

Is it accurate that Yazid gave Zacarias Moussaoui $35,000 to sell his company’s software in the U.S.? Did Zacarias make any such sales at all? The company at the time had disavowed any such connection and did not sell in the US. If computer sales were the aim, why was the account set up for Yazid “greenlab@usa.com” ?

A key to PR and advocacy is to always speak the truth.

Daily News (New York)

December 21, 2008 Sunday
SPORTS FINAL EDITION

LAB RAT ON THE LOOSE

Cross your fingers. In what feels hauntingly like the first scene in a new season of “24,” the Malaysian government has just set free Yazid Sufaat, the man once known as Al Qaeda’s bioweapons guru.

Quoth the nation’s interior minister about Sufaat and five other just-released Islamic militants: “They are no longer a threat and will no longer pose a threat to public order.” Sufaat, he said, “has been rehabilitated.”

Unless by “rehabilitated” he means “lobotomized,” this is not reassuring.

According to the 9/11 Commission report, Sufaat spent “several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for Al Qaeda in a laboratory” in Afghanistan. He also hosted people plotting the attacks in his apartment. Cross your fingers.

DXersaid

This article describes the FBI’s questioning of Yazid in November 2002. The anthrax mailings occurred in September / October 2001 and the FBI did not question the person who reasonably was known to be the Al Qaeda anthrax lab tech until a full year later. They then spent a half-hour.

Nothing could justify the failure to succeed in obtaining an earlier interview sooner — and to send an investigator from Amerithrax. The FBI at the time was foolishly fixated on its Hatfill Theory.

The FBI was “disappointed and frustrated” after failing to get any new leads about Sept. 11 terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui by interrogating a detained Islamic militant in Malaysia, officials said Tuesday.
Interrogators felt Yazid Sufaat was “evasive and withholding information” during a half-hour session Monday at a prison camp in the country’s north, a senior government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Yazid, a U.S.-educated former Malaysian army officer, is believed to be a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian ally of al-Qaida.

His signature is on a phony letter naming Moussaoui as the overseas sales representative of his computer company, InfocusTech. The letter helped Moussaoui enter the United States – where he enrolled in flight training schools – months before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, faces death-penalty charges for conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks. He has denied involvement, but admits being a staunch al-Qaida member.

Yazid was interviewed by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a lawyer from the U.S. Attorney General’s office at a time Washington wants to bolster its case against Moussaoui without disclosing sensitive intelligence in court.

“They were disappointed and frustrated,” another official said on condition of anonymity. “They felt that Yazid was not forthcoming in his answers.”

The questioning was over in 35 minutes, in accordance with camp visiting rules. The official said that the limit could have been extended by the camp commandant, but was unsure if a request had been made.

The Americans, who have not spoken to reporters, did not say if they intended to interrogate Yazid again, the Malaysians told the AP.

The government says Yazid let two of the Sept. 11 hijackers who crashed an American Airlines jetliner into the Pentagon meet other al-Qaida operatives at an apartment he owns in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in January 2000. Yazid is not believed to have been at the meeting.

Yazid has told Malaysian authorities that he let the apartment be used by a man he says was his religious teacher – Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, one of Jemaah Islamiyah’s leaders and al-Qaida’s top man in Malaysia.

Yazid has claimed that Hambali persuaded him to buy four tons of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural chemical that can be used as an explosive, as a business deal. It has never been found, but is believed to have been intended for a thwarted attack on Western interests in neighboring Singapore.

Malaysian authorities also had problems getting Yazid to talk, the senior government official said.

“After months of questioning, they find Yazid is still very committed to his version of jihad and is far from repentant for his actions,” he said.

Asked whether the United States might be compelled to seek Yazid’s extradition to face terrorism-related charges, the official predicted that little would be gained.

“Besides the legal problems, they do not have evidence and the signs are they will make no progress in interrogating him,” he said. “It makes better sense to have him locked up here in Malaysia.”

Yazid wrote this October 2000 letter of introduction for Moussaoui. Moussaoui is the one who made the crop-duster inquiries. Jdey, carrying biology textbooks, was arrested the same time but then released. We did not learn that until nearly a decade later.

DXersaid

“I started ‘the project’ before Sept 11 and when Sept 11 happened, my laboratory (in Kandahar) got bombed, my hospital got bombed. What happens then? They will kill you before you can crawl. They won’t allow you to grow.”

DXersaid

“How do you justify the death of innocent people? Even in the Quran, it says you cannot kill women and children.

Study fekah jihadiyyah (the jurisprudence of jihad), what you can do and what you cannot do. In any fekah , the ulama tend to differ in their opinion, even in very simple things let alone these big ones.

When these people do this (the bombings), of course they weigh these things. The do’s and don’ts, the can and cannot. What choices they have. The majority of ulamas say no, but a small minority of ulama say yes, it can be done. After the fall of the Abbasid empire in 1258, there is no more Syariah (Islamic law)… So it is our obligation to bring this thing back…”

Comment: Use of anthrax that kills women or children or cattle or against foodstocks violates express hadiths. See article by Bernard Lewis in September 2001. Dr. Ayman is a strategist but not religious scholar.

DXersaid

This interview was conducted by Fathi Aris Omar, Aidila Razak and Salhan K Ahmad. The interview is part of Malaysiakini ‘s focus series on the Internal Security Act, leading up to its repeal, which is expected to tabled in Parliament this sitting.

DXersaid

DXersaid

I’m new to Facebook and chat and so I hope I don’t breach common-sense protocols.

But as a big reader of news, I just love getting news and insights from the people who actually have reason to know.

You can have your document-withholding prosecutors trying to spin their narrative in order to advance their career… thank you very much. I prefer my insights from a friendly guy with a roguish smile. A romantic, no less.

DXersaid

Yazid, answering the questions on your Facebook page would be an ideal way to keep control of the content.

And, yes, you surely are both handsome and charming and have always had every right to “plead the Fifth” if you like.

But in life one wants to at some point turn to substantive content so that people don’t go merely by your charm, good looks and easy manner .

As a scientist you also want to be known as a man of substance. Your mother-in-law has always judged you by your faithfulness — but on the world stage mastering facts — and getting facts right — is valued.

You are a man worthy of respect to deal with issues forthrightly. Dr. Ayman’s recent kidnapping, on the other hand, is a small act indeed. He clearly does not understand PR as well as you — and as well as Osama did.

From the interview (which is type of journalism we should see more often):

“The ‘project’ in a Kandahar lab

His desire to “help (his) fellow brothers” also saw Yazid finding himself criss-crossing the Afghan-Pakistan border – this time to build a hospital.

He used his experience in running a pathology laboratory to train staff at the hospital and to set up a laboratory next to the hospital in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

It was at this laboratory that he was accused of having developed biological weapons – something which he terms “the so-called project”.

Initially hesitant to reveal what went on in the lab, which he claims he started before Sept 11, 2011 and was bombed out following the World Trade Centre attacks, Yazid let out that it was a defence strategy.

“Of course (there was research), we are scientists (laughs). We have to do it, but the lab wasn’t that sophisticated. It was bare bones, that was what we could manage. We do what we can and leave the rest to Allah.

“If (the other side) use ‘bugs’, you must understand that bug in detail so we can counter any biological weapon that they use. You must know your enemy,” he said.

But was he really the ‘CEO of Anthrax’ and a senior al-Qaeda leader as alleged?

“I never expected to be accused of doing this thing… if you read the stuff they wrote about me, it’s impressive. But (what I did) was really nothing.

“If people want to write bad things, they will write bad things. (If) they want to write good things they would. That is just perception. I don’t care. What do I need to hide?

“My name is Yazid Sufaat. I did not do anything wrong. I don’t feel guilty at all,” he declared.

Ex-ISA detainee Yazid says he met Osama

INTERVIEW A simple Google search on Yazid Sufaat will return the following results – militant, bombmaker, biological weapons expert, and one of the longest serving detainees under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

“They call me the CEO of Anthrax.”

Shrugging as he says this, the father of four who was released from ISA detention in November 2008 after seven years – five of which were in solitary confinement – wears the title almost like a badge of honour.

“They (the accusers) call me that because I only have a cabok (simple) Bachelor of Science but my students were PhDs, Masters’ degree holders,” he told Malaysiakini in an extensive interview at his home last week.

His “students” are now inmates in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, which he discovered when the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed him photographs of them during questioning at the Kamunting detenion centre where he was held.

His devil-may-care attitude may lead one to believe that Yazid’s “I love Osama Laden” proclamation on his Facebook page as a sort of joke.

But the unrepentant Yazid, who is one of seven Malaysians on the United Nations ‘travel, asset and arms deal’ sanction list for alleged involvement with the infamous al-Qaeda, really loves Osama.

Recalling his time in Afghanistan in 2000-2001, Yazid admitted having met the now deceased al-Qaeda leader and considered it “an honour”.

“Of course, I met him, it’s an honour to meet him. How many people have?” he asked.

Yazid, who crossed the the Pakistan-Afghan border on learning of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US, said he trained as a militant for six months under the one-time most wanted man in the world.

“That was the opportunity to face them (the enemy). Of course, they came… I think the closest bomb that fell was 15m from me. That was the experience; (I) wanted it, Allah give (me) a chance,” he said.

Under Osama, he sharpened his shooting skills, learned to walk in the dark and navigate using the stars and how to withstand the brutal desert combat conditions -losing about 18kg in the first two months.

“I am military trained but trained in a different terrain. (In Afghanistan) there is no jungle, all desert.

“Of course we could not run away from the Quran. I learned Arabic, listened to (Osama’s) lectures, his usrah (discussion to instill loyalty and brotherhood).”

When Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance forces in November 2001, it was Osama who advised him to leave the war-torn country and return when “we have won back Afghanistan”.

“At that time I thought, if they catch me out here, I would be heading to Guantanamo. If I go home, it’s only ISA. So I called a friend at Bukit Aman and he said: ‘Come back. At least here it’s only ISA’.

“My wife didn’t believe I would be arrested, so I said let’s cross the border and see. We crossed Bukit Kayu Hitam (Thai-Malaysian border) and I was arrested,” he said of the December 2001 incident.

The journey to Afghanistan

A Royal Military College alumnus and a retired army captain, Yazid’s journey to Afghanistan began when he started seeking answers about his religion.

He said that he became an adult in the “sin cities” of the US, having graduated from California State University as a biochemist at the age of 23.

“When I returned, I was still wild. My mother-in-law said I should go study religion, but I didn’t want to learn about the solat or how to perform the haj.

“I wanted something different. So (people said) go meet this ustaz and (when I did) I thought, ‘this is good, this is something different’.”

“Addicted” to the lessons, Yazid began delving more and more into the teachings of Islam only to be left unsatiated.

“I thought, ‘this can’t be it’. (I) wanted to graduate, so I started reading more and when you have knowledge you want to ‘do’ (something). I am a scientist… I want to prove the theory.”

In 1995, Yazid performed the umrah and vowed to only return to perform the haj when he could understand the Quran. He returned in 1998.

The same year, he went to Ambon, Indonesia, at the height of the Christian-Muslim conflict – to experience the “real jihad”.

“I had a bit of money. If I left my family, they can sustain themselves. I wanted to see the real thing. What is so special about it. I wanted to face it… jihad in terms of qital, which means war,” he said.

Going into Ambon “blind” on his own steam on the first fact-finding mission, Yazid and a friend met with Muslims there to understand their urgent needs and returned home to build a network of assistance.

At the time, Yazid was operating a pathology lab, running medical tests for up to 600 clinics and it was his clients that he approached to get the rudimentary medical supplies to send to Ambon.

“It was humanitarian. There you could find all sorts of non-Muslim humanitarian groups like the Red Cross. The Muslims were people like me, who wanted to help. They were called mujahiddin (freedom fighters), now they are called terrorists.

“In a conflict area, you have to defend yourself. You don’t just go like that Mavi Marmara ship. It’s stupid!” he said.

Yazid would later be charged for funding sectarian violence in Ambon – one of the five charges which kept him under the ISA.

“Mercy (Malaysia) was there. Umno guys were there. Both were funded. Yazid Sufaat was there, self-funded, but this is a threat to national security,” he said.

The ‘project’ in a Kandahar lab

His desire to “help (his) fellow brothers” also saw Yazid finding himself criss-crossing the Afghan-Pakistan border – this time to build a hospital.

He used his experience in running a pathology laboratory to train staff at the hospital and to set up a laboratory next to the hospital in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

It was at this laboratory that he was accused of having developed biological weapons – something which he terms “the so-called project”.

Initially hesitant to reveal what went on in the lab, which he claims he started before Sept 11, 2011 and was bombed out following the World Trade Centre attacks, Yazid let out that it was a defence strategy.

“Of course (there was research), we are scientists (laughs). We have to do it, but the lab wasn’t that sophisticated. It was bare bones, that was what we could manage. We do what we can and leave the rest to Allah.

“If (the other side) use ‘bugs’, you must understand that bug in detail so we can counter any biological weapon that they use. You must know your enemy,” he said.

But was he really the ‘CEO of Anthrax’ and a senior al-Qaeda leader as alleged?

“I never expected to be accused of doing this thing… if you read the stuff they wrote about me, it’s impressive. But (what I did) was really nothing.

“If people want to write bad things, they will write bad things. (If) they want to write good things they would. That is just perception. I don’t care. What do I need to hide?

“My name is Yazid Sufaat. I did not do anything wrong. I don’t feel guilty at all,” he declared.

Ayman Zawahiri’s correspondence plainly shows that anthrax was being developed as a weapon for use against US targets. EIJ’s military commander Mabruk, EIJ shura member Al-Najjar, and the Blind Sheik’s lawyer Abdul Rahman said as much. The suggestion that Al Qaeda was developing anthrax in case it was used against them shows disrespect to the intelligence of their intended audience and is not truthful.

Transparent lies are very poor PR. If you can’t justify murder by telling the truth, then that is telling that there was no justification.

DXersaid

It is a time-honored tradition in the United States, that those who have already paid their debt to society (as it was perceived by the authorities) become media darlings.

The story of the Irish mob in Boston is an example — numerous former members of the mob wrote books (often co-authored by a journalist), went on talk shows, and are celebrated for their insights into the FBI’s missteps in the Whitey Bulger saga.

Judging by comments to the interview, you’ve gotten off to a rough start and wrong start by not getting into particulars. We are hoping the journalist who interviewed follows up with more substantive Q and A.

Generally , did the FBI make missteps in its Amerithrax investigation as you understand it? How was their investigation of Al Qaeda’s anthrax planning?

Please join us so that we better understand things.

Wikileaks / Guantanamo : Doesn’t the United States know the strain of the virulent anthrax used in one or more of the Al Qaeda labs, for which Sufaat and his assistants were vaccinated, based on interrogation of the individuals? Why didn’t the FBI simply provide the NAS with the answers to its question about the strain of the anthrax based on interrogation of Yazid Sufaat or his anthrax lab assistants? Will it answer the same questions for GAO?

Marwan Hadid worked at Omar Hospital assisting Yazid Sufaat. Hadid was a hematology technician. In May 2001, Yazid Sufaat reportedly was attempting to cultivate anthrax there. Who does Marwan Hadid think is responsible for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings?

Marwan Hadid al-Suri, who was assisting Yazid Sufaat at Omar Hospital in May 2001 and then helped set up the anthrax lab in Kandahar later that month, was killed in 2006 in northwestern Pakistan. Marwan al-Suri, 38, was said to be a close aide of al-Qaida No. 2 Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. But where is Yazid Sufaat now?

The dropping of the ball relating to Al-Mihdhar and Al-Hazmi’s entering the country after the meeting at the KL condo of the anthrax lab tech was closely related to the detention and release of Jdey at the time of Moussaoui’s arrest.

In Late August 2001, Atta Went With Jdey’s Associate Nawaf Al-Hazmi From The Fort Lee, NJ Main Street Location That The Particulate Mixer Had Been Delivered To Laurel, MD Where The FBI Later Has Atta On Film At KINKOS Copying; Jdey’s Associate Nawaf Al-Hazmi Had Been At The Planning Meeting At Yazid Sufaat’s Kuala Lumpur Condo With Anthrax Planner Hambali And Anthrax Lab Director Yazid Sufaat

Atta Was Coordinating With Jdey’s Associate Al-Hazmi, First In Fort Lee, NJ In Late August 2001 And Then In Laurel, MD in September 2001 ; Jdey’s Associate Nawaf Al-Hazmi Had Been At The Planning Meeting At Yazid Sufaat’s Kuala Lumpur Condo With Anthrax Planner Hambali And Anthrax Lab Director Yazid Sufaat And Yet The FBI Never Told The Public That Jdey Had Been Detained Along With Moussaoui In August 2001 (With Biology Textbooks) And Then Released

GAO: What genetic strain was the anthrax reportedly sent to Prime Minister Gilani? Did guinea pigs die when exposed to it so as to rule out possibility of a false positive? Was there a Silicon Signature?

DXersaid

This interview was conducted by Fathi Aris Omar, Aidila Razak and Salhan K Ahmad. The interview is part of Malaysiakini’s focus series on the Internal Security Act, leading up to its repeal, which is expected to tabled in Parliament this sitting.